Tuesday, May 16, 2017

1970 Winner, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Director:Elio Petri

Distributed by:Columbia
Pictures

Released:February 1970

Country:Italy

We all know people who think they are
the smartest person in the room. They may try to hide it, but by the way
they talk and act, you know they think they are smarter than you. And
yet, their defining characteristic is insecurity. It’s important for them
not only to know they are smarter than you, but to prove it by telling you
something they think you don’t know or casually dropping some fact designed to
make you raise an eyebrow in admiration. Me?I’m comfortable enough to not need to stoop
to having to prove how smart I am.If
you’ve been reading my reviews, this has already become apparent to you.

But such is not the case for the
unnamed police inspector in Investigation
of a Citizen Above Suspicion, the winner of 1970’s Best Foreign Film.
The Inspector is a brilliant man, recently promoted to his position. He
is certain that the combination of his smarts, his status, and the general
incompetence of his underlings means that no matter what crime he
committed—even murder—he would never be caught for.

Gian Maria Volonte as The Inspector

The film starts with the Inspector
meeting his lady friend in her apartment.She asks him a strange and intriguing question:How are you going to kill me today?The answer will soon be given to her—he will
slash her throat and let her bleed out.And having been made Inspector, he knows exactly what evidence to leave
to throw the detectives he supervises off the trail.

This movie is about hubris, a word
many of you probably don’t know.But I
have quite an extensive vocabulary, so I will give you the definition:it is the condition of unnaturally feeling
superior to those around you, to the point of it being obnoxious.The Inspector, in fact, becomes frustrated
during the investigation that the force is so incompetent that they don’t even
suspect him.He begins leaving clues for
them so that he will be a suspect, knowing that he is, well, a citizen above
suspicion.It isn’t enough to have
committed the murder; it’s important to him that he prove how smart and
important he is.This may or may not
lead to his downfall.

Inspector meeting his mistress

Given my encyclopedic knowledge of
cinema, I instantly recognized the actor playing the Inspector as Gian Maria Volonte,
who played the villains the first two “Man with No Name” spaghetti westerns by
Sergio Leone, A Fistful of Dollars
from 1964 and For a Few Dollars More from
1965.In those movies, he is pure evil;
he plays it much more subtly in Investigation
of a Citizen Above Suspicion. In
real life, Volontè was known for being leftist to the point of having Communist
leanings.As the Inspector, he vows to
crush political protestors whom he sees as the enemy.But even given his autocratic persona, the
Inspector is a somewhat pitiable figure, and even though we know he is a
murderer, it is difficult to watch him come unglued as he loses control over
the situation.

There is an almost comedic tone to
the story, helped along by a zippy score by the great Ennio Morricone, complete
with mandolin and Jew’s harp.Morricone
wrote the music having only known the basic plot of the movie, and said he
wanted the music to be “grotesque.”The
music fits the story like a glove.

Volonte in For a Few Dollars More

Investigation
of a Citizen Above Suspicion reminded me of a key
scene in the latter seasons of the AMC series Breaking Bad.At one point,
it is clear anti-hero Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, will get off
scot-free, never having been suspected of being drug kingpin "Heisenberg."His brother-in-law Hank, a federal drug
enforcement agent, believes Heisenberg was a second-rate chemist who had recently been
found dead.Walter cannot abide the
false notion that his genius is unrecognized, and clues in Hank that the dead
man is probably not his man.Like
Walter, the Inspector is equally arrogant, and oddly despicable and sympathetic
at the same time.And like Walter, his
own insecurity may lead to his undoing.

The title:Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni
sospetto, in Italian.I don’t speak the
language, but I do know some French.Also, I have a master’s degree in History and have read Ulysses by James Joyce.

Bryan Cranston in the remake?

The
Culture:Italy, apparently, was not unlike America in
the late 60’s, and the movie conveys a distrust of the polizia typical of a young person in that time and culture.

Agenda
danger:The Inspector, who is corrupt and power-starved,
wants to crush protest and civil unrest. He is a protagonist who underscores the flawed
morality of those in power, and in this way the movie conveys the leftist views
of Volante and director Elio Petri.

Best
Picture that year:Patton.Another film about a man in power who is both
sympathetic and hard to like.Of course,
unlike the Inspector, Patton’s arrogance is offset by heroic qualities.

Rating:I found the ending to be somewhat
unsatisfying, but overall, the film is a treat.Volante is superb as the Inspector, so sure of himself and yet so
concerned with letting everyone know his is a genius.Florinda Bolkan, playing his mistress is also
a pleasure to watch, appearing frequently in flashbacks, unknowingly pushing
the Inspector to commit the crime that will end her life.

A couple of attempts at an American remake were
shelved; my hope is if it is redone, the American version is able to capture
the character of the Inspector properly.Might I suggest Bryan Cranston? And if this suggestion is taken, I would
expect a casting credit, of course, so that everyone would know it was my brilliant idea.